Curator's Blog

Museum, research, and collection updates from Dr. José H. Leal, plus Shell of the Week, which highlights a different species every Friday. Most Shells of the Week—but not all—are found in Southwest Florida.

Dr. José H. Leal serves as the Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum’s Science Director and Curator. He received his Ph.D. in Marine Biology and Fisheries from the University of Miami and has served at the Museum since 1996. Under his leadership, the Museum was awarded its first accreditation from the American Alliance of Museums in 2010.

José H. Leal

Mar 18, 2016

The Colorful Moon Snail

The Colorful Moon Snail, Naticarius canrena (Linnaeus, 1758), belongs in the category of "most desirable shell finds" locally. Colorful Moon Snails are in the same group (family Naticidae) as the Shark Eye, but unlike this latter species, which has a brown, proteinaceous, "soft" operculum (plural opercula), Colorful Moon Snails have opercula made of shell material, or calcium carbonate. The sculpture of the operculum in the family Naticidae is important in the classification

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